“Community should listen”

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32406, 19 September 1970, Page 12

“Community should listen”

A university lecturer who has long been actively Involved in organised protest, particularly the race and sport issue, Mr Richard Thompson, reader in sociology at Canterbury University, says demonstrations are a symptom of strongly held feelings, and the community should listen to the reasons for protest.

The minorities, the less influential and the less affluent can hardly avoid knowing what majorities, the more influential and the more affluent believe about issues which may concern them, he says. Demonstrations cannot be regarded in isolation, he adds; they underline an argument that otherwise would not get the attention it deserved. “It makes it possible to keep an issue before those who would wish to forget it, and it corrects claims of the majority who may go ahead and claim the backing of the whole community,” Mr Thompson says. There are, of course, various types of demonstrations and he draws a distinction between those which say what needs to be said by a dozen or so people, and “the other kind of demonstration, n

such as those against apartheid in Britain, which is not without disturbance.” What is reasonable by way of public protest? “I am, of course, committed to nonviolence and the maintenance of public order, as far as it can be balanced with reasonable justice and compassion," Mr Thompson said. Although issues do not bite so deeply in New Zealand, as say in the United States, it is important, he feels, that society should listen to its youth.

“It is fashionable to be critical of students who take part in protests or demonstrations,” he adds, “but l am full of admiration for students who have over the years expressed concern over such issues as the exclusion of Maori sportsmen from New Zealand representative teams and our participation in the Vietnam war.” And he adds: "They have, among other qualities, a compassion that is so often lacking in their elders.” Mr Thompson also makes a point seldom raised—that demonstrations have the advantage of being cheap. It is one of the few ways in which a section of the community without financial resources can protest. “The demonstration therefore can underline and draw attention to issues that need to be clarified elsewhere,” he says. ’ Because a wide range of people take part in demonstrations, some will be unpredictable in their behaviour, Mr Thompson says. It is important that the police knows what is in the organisers’ minds, and there should also be room for flexibility and sensibility. Most demonstrations in Christchurch were of manageable proportions, he added.